Time Boxes
Via Pragmatic Marketing, this piece on How to use timeboxes for scheduling software delivery.
MPD
MPD
MPD, writing
Writing Feedback That Wasn't Helpful
I am an early reviewer on Esther Derby’s and Diana Larsen’s upcoming book about retrospectives (Pragmatic Bookshelf, sometime this year). Here’s a piece of my feedback that puzzled Esther: “Put those words on weight training!” Her response was “cute, but what do I do?” I laughed out loud on the phone with her. I was
MPD, workshop
Announcement: Managing One-on-One Workshop
A couple of weeks ago in Positive Results With One-on-Ones, I let you know Esther and I would be running public workshops soon. We are finally ready to announce the workshop. July 10-12, 2006, in Minneapolis, we will hold the first Behind Closed Doors: Managing One-on-One workshop. Interested? Here’s the flyer (PDF). I’ll be
Books, MPD
A Great Review for Behind Closed Doors
Adam Goucher published his Review of Behind Closed Doors. Adam likes it! Here are the things he particularly likes: the scenario structure of seeing what a great manager does each week; and the techniques that managers (and anyone else) can use to make life easier. Thanks, Adam.
MPD, multitasking
Convincing Management That Context Switching Is a Bad Idea
A few weeks ago, I republished an article originally published in Better Software: Convincing Management That Context Switching Is a Bad Idea on the AYE site. I’d received no feedback about the article when it was published, so I wanted to generate some discussion about my ideas. I did generate a little discussion. Don Gray
MPD, project management
100 Rules for Nasa Project Managers
I was reading Michael Specht’s links of Mar 24, 2006 and found this gem: One Hundred Rules for NASA Project Managers.
MPD, project management
Construction Metaphor Doesn't Work for Me
Matisse has an interesting post, Software is like Building Construction. He talks about iterative design and the interdependencies of people with deliverables as being common to construction and software. In my opinion, he’s not all wrong, but he’s not all right. I agree that there are plenty of design-build firms who wait until the
MPD
Positive Results With One-on-ones
Via Keith’s A Few Good Posts by Ed Gibbs, I read Better Feedback Loops With One on Ones. Sounds like one-on-ones are helping Ed and his team. Last week, I had dinner with a manager (also using Scrum) who has had great results with one-on-ones. It’s always nice to hear positive news about a
MPD
When is Continuous Integration Not?
I’m a big fan of continuous integration. For me, that means that as developers implement small pieces, they check in the changes, verify the changes with a local build and smoke test, promote the code to the mainline, check again, and they’re done. I’ve been having a long discussion with one of my clients about
MPD
Working on My Inbox
Merlin’s been doing a series of posts about emptying your inbox. I decided he was right.Here’s the philosphical statement in Inbox Zero: Articles of faith that helped me see a new possibility: Admitting you simply don’t have the time to participate in a 10-times-daily email exchange with someone is difficult to admit. But what’s the